


For Whom The Bell Tolls

by hirusen



Series: Uncle Drifter [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Bargaining, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Comfort, Crying, Established Relationship, F/F, Fireteam (Destiny), Fireteam As Family (Destiny), Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hugs, Language, Missions Gone Wrong, Original Character Death(s), Past Character Death, Raid Team (Destiny), Soulmates, The Author Regrets Nothing, Vomiting, Wishes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirusen/pseuds/hirusen
Summary: No one...is ever ready...
Relationships: Female Guardian/Female Guardian (Destiny), The Drifter & Female Guardian (Destiny)
Series: Uncle Drifter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662226
Kudos: 13





	1. Before The Tragedy

"You guys seriously need to stop scaring me!" Drifter barked as the group of six entered his room in the Annex, all grinning and laughing. They've been practicing call-outs and tactics for a while now in the Gambit private matches Drifter set up so people who just weren't good at Gambit--or whole fireteams that weren't--could learn the arenas and figure out the best strategy for which ever map and enemy type Drifter threw at their faces. This fireteam on the other hand, from what Drifter's been hearing in their comm chatter, was preparing to dive into the Dreaming City to tackle Riven.

"Ya sure you can handle an Ahamkara?" "She'll be no trouble!" One of the two Titans spoke up and the Dark Age Risen just shook his head. The group was made of two Titans, three Hunters, and a Warlock. Esa was the Titan who just spoke, an Awoken man; the other was a human male by the name of Sweet; one Hunter was a female Exo named Yua-8, another was a human male called Iso, and the last Hunter was an Awoken female named Vorri, though the group sometimes just call her Ree; the lone Warlock of the group was a human woman by the name of Phi.

Vorri and Phi, currently, were dating and at the moment trying to sneak a kiss while the rest of their friends were distracted. "Am I getting a show too? Or just a sneak peak of the main event?" Drifter teased the girls, both of them flipping him off as they went red in the face, their friends chuckling and giggling affectionately after they were outed. "So, you all feel ready?" The group nodded their head and Drifter moved from his spot against the railing, heading towards the couple and holding his hands out.

The girls raised a confused brow and each held out a hand, giggling when he let two origami cranes fall into their palms. "It's the closest things to swans I could make." "Swans?" Esa asked and Drifter nodded. "Even I can tell that their Light is connected in ways that you can't find anywhere else; if that doesn't mean their soulmates, I don't know what does." Sweet let out a surprised laugh. "You believe in that kind of thing?" "Does it surprise you?" The group went silent. "...I found and lost the love of my life back before the City Age began, and I haven't found anyone who can fill the void she left behind; I have someone now who helps soothe that pain, but he can only do so much." "You love him?" Iso asked and Drifter nodded.

"Hand to my heart, I know what a soulmate is; these two have that connection and I thought it'd be good to have a little reminder of that before ya'll go into that hellhole." Vorri rushed forward and hugged Drifter tightly, the rest of them following not long after. "Love you, Drifter!" "I know you do, snitch." "Hey!" He didn't blame Vorri for staying with the Vanguard; it suited her better than runnin' with him did.

"Go; eat, drink, fuck, party. Enjoy yourselves tonight." Drifter encouraged, Esa, Iso, and Yua all sharing a glance that told Drifter some of his Comp players were gonna show up **much** earlier tonight that normal. Sweet headed up to the Bazaar, saying that he was going to ask Ikora for some more information about the Taken and Ahamkara before they head to the Dreaming City.

"Drifter?" Named man turned back to the Hunter and Warlock, waiting. "...Thank you, for looking out for us." The duo had been a fireteam ever since they woke up next to each other after the attack on the Tower that started the Red War, and stayed that way until some other Guardians basically stole Vorri away from Phi. He saw just how much it pained Phi to fight against Vorri when they got matched against each other during the early days of Gambit; Drifter had Phi stay behind and asked her to follow him. Drifter had pulled Vorri and the fireteam she was with back onto the Derelict and demanded to know what was going on; when the fireteam Vorri was apart of started to harass her and call her horrid things, he pulled her back to Phi's side and beat the shit out of the other Guardians, banning them from ever playing Gambit again and asked Vorri to revoke her membership to the clan they were apart of.

It was after that that he introduced them to Esa and the others, the group wanting to have another Hunter and a Warlock for their Crucible team, and the history made itself after that. "No problem. Those guys were assholes anyway; heard they're stuck doing the same things as Lightless after they got caught doing something that broke the Iron Degree." Vorri's face paled a little as Phi held her close; to think she would've been part of that group if Drifter hadn't done something...

"Well...we should get going." "Chocolate strawberries and a sweet red wine, ladies; you'll thank me later." Once again, they flipped him off, but the smiles on their faces told Drifter that they liked the idea.


	2. The Tragedy

"Careful, Sweet!" "I know, I know!" Vorri barked as she and Sweet dodged out of the way of the burning Taken fire Riven breathed at them, quickly staggering the Ahamkara, knowing that Phi was watching for her eyes. "Outer 2, Inner 4." _"Copy."_ Esa replied before Riven vanished and both groups took their elevators back to the main floor. Everything was going fine, according to plan.

Then a Taken Ogre had eye blasted Phi just enough for her to not be able to move out of the way in time after she had baited one of Riven's tentacles. "PHI!" Vorri screamed, bolting for her moments before the tip of Riven's tentacle speared down, Phi getting shoved out of the way.

In that moment two things happened. A Taken Hobgoblin managed to snipe Awake, Vorri's Ghost, who had been out to try and start the healing process for Phi and Vorri, and his Light pulsed throughout the area. And then, the inevitable happened. The sick, squelching sound had drowned out everything else in the room, all eyes widening in horror as Vorri hung limp on Riven's tentacle, it having pierced her chest, but didn't go all the way through, blood sluggishly starting to pool beneath her.

" ** _VORRI!!!!_** " Phi's heartbroken scream appeared to murder the rest of the Taken in the room, leaving only her, her fireteam, Riven, and her now dead love alone.

"You bitch! You heartless, unfeeling, insufferable bitch!" "Phi!" Esa shouted, rushing to the Warlock and snaring her arms as she tried to raise her auto rifle and fire at Riven. "Let me go! Let go!" Tears pooled in her eyes as the Titan held her arms down, her Light swarming out and stealing all heat from his hands, but Esa didn't care. Silence was only broken by Phi's sobs, the other Guardians unsure of what to do or even say. Suddenly, Riven began to move, having grown still as soon as she killed Vorri.

The tentacle that held Vorri's body slowly and carefully lowered, offering the corpse that hung off it to the Guardians before Riven. Phi, with Esa's help, removed Vorri's body gently off of the end, holding the Hunter in her arms as the tentacle retracted. _"I did not dream for this to happen, O Widow Mine..."_ Riven spoke, sounding like Ikora to Phi; they had told each other who Riven sounded like to them before they headed into Riven's lair. Phi heard Ikora; Esa heard Mara; Sweet heard Asher; Yua-8 heard Zavala; Iso heard Sloane; and Vorri... Ree heard Uldren.

The only person out of the voices to die.

"...There's nothing you can do?" "Phi? What are you doing?" Yua asked, but she ignored her, waiting for Riven to speak. _"...There is not, O Widow Mine."_ "So there's nothing I can offer you to..." Esa and Iso tensed up the second those words left Phi's lips. "You're trying to _bargain_ with an **AHAMKARA**?" Sweet growled, but a handheld nova shot past him. "Shut up." "Phi, you can't think that--" "SHUT UP!" Phi screamed, crumbling to the ground with Vorri gripped tighter in her arms, her tears flowing freely down her face now.

 _"I understand your pain, O Widow Mine, but you have nothing you can give for such a bargain."_ "Then I wish it." "WHAT? Phi, no, don't--" Iso couldn't even get the rest of his words out before, "Riven of a Thousand Voices, I wish for Vorri to return to us!" Phi yelled, face hard and determined in spite of the tears that ran down it. Her fireteam felt a cold chill run down their spines as Riven reached out and carefully took Vorri's lifeless body into her claws, bringing her close as if to examine her.

 _"I can not grant your wish, O Widow Mine."_ "...What..?" Phi's broken voice was more than Sweet could take. "You're an Ahamkara, a wish dragon; yes, how you grant your wishes are never what the wisher wants, but the wish is granted nonetheless. Why can you not grant Phi's wish?" _"Because, O Cleaver One, the price for such a wish is not one she will be willing to pay."_ The group looked confused. _"On any other occasion, I would never tell you such things, but the price for your wish, O Widow Mine, is the lives of everyone in this room, with your life as well."_

Phi felt herself pale, stomach churning violently. Esa and Sweet flinched as Phi suddenly hurled, her body and mind not able to accept the truth of what's happening, trying to reject it like poisoned food. The two Titans stayed by her side as she threw up, Yua stepping forward and accepting Vorri's body once again. _"The only gift I can give you, O Widow Mine, is my life. It is yours to feely take."_ Riven spoke as she opened her maw and Phi didn't wait for another second.

The rest of the group just watched as cold murder seeped off of Phi, her Void Light seeming to drain even the color of the surrounding room away as she walked into the gaping maw.


	3. After The Tragedy

_"Drifter! Get up here!"_ Ikora's voice snapped over his comms, the man wanting to flinch and throw the damn thing away, but her worried and even scared tone had him running towards the Bazaar instead. As soon as he managed to shove his way through the Lightless that had crowded away from where Ikora was, a few of them screamed as Void Light exploded only two feet in front of his face. Phi and her fireteam had clearly just returned, but why..?

Then he saw Vorri's body, face covered, in Zavala's arms and he knew instantly what had and hadn't happened.

Calling upon the Darkness that dwells within his Light, Drifter rushed for Phi, gripped her tight in his arms, her face tucked into his chest. She tried to shove him away, her Light sucking away all of the heat from his body, but the cold is nothing new to Drifter, just focusing his Darkness into her, surrounding her Light to try and keep it from hitting any of the Lightless, him whispering soothing sounds to her, not giving her a millimeter of space between them. Finally, her Light settled and she broke down crying in his arms, the man softening his hold a little bit.

"...Another tragedy as transpired within the Dreaming City. Vorri, a Hunter whom has protected many Lightless and Guardians during the Red War, has died in combat." The little hushes of sound stopped aside from Phi's broken sobs, the entire Tower seeming to grow into a graveyard at the Vanguard Commander's words. "Today, we mourn the loss of another hero and protector of humanity." Zavala went on, but Drifter tuned it out, scooping Phi into his arms and heading back down to the Annex; at least it'll be quieter than the Bazaar.


End file.
